Northland tops UMAC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
2009 UMAC Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. 46 Points - Northland College (4 First Place Votes)
2. 44 Points - Northwestern College (3)
3. 36 Points - University of Minnesota, Morris
4. 30 Points - College of St. Scholastica
5. 24 Points - Martin Luther College
6. 23 Points - Bethany Lutheran College (1)
7. 15 Points - Presentation College
8. 7 Points - Crown College
ST. PAUL -- Northland College, winner of the 2008-09 UMAC Women’s Basketball Championship, was predicted to win the conference title yet again in 2009-10 according to a poll of the league's coaches. The LumberJills received 46 points and four first place votes in the poll, besting Northwestern College, who tied for second in last year's season standings, by two points.
While the LumberJills from Northland return several key players from last year’s conference championship team, one position they’ll be replacing is that of the head coach. New coach Bill Wilson, who brings 20 years of collegiate coaching to the bench - most recently from Brevard College (N.C.), assumes the team’s reigns after Dan Roiger departed in June. Wilson has a lot of talent to work with including the 2008-09 UMAC Player of the Year in guard Lindsay Hamm and All-UMAC first team forward Chelsea Lundgren. The other seven UMAC coaches know Hamm well, as she broke the conference’s Top 10 in scoring, field goal percentage, assists, steals, three-point field goal percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio.
Northwestern earned 44 points and three first place votes in the poll to place second. The Eagles will look to return to their conference championship form of 2007-08 this season having lost to Northland by just a game a year ago. Katie DeWitt and Ariel Liesch, a pair of senior guards who averaged 11 or more points per game last season will be relied upon to lead that charge. DeWitt posted several double-doubles last year as she averaged 14.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Liesch, the 2007-08 UMAC Player of the Year, averaged 11.0 points and 5.2 board per contest last season. Kaelee Kendrick looks to take care of business in the front court, where she averaged nearly seven points and seven rebounds in 2008-09.
The University of Minnesota-Morris shared second place with Northwestern in the final 2008-09 UMAC standings with an 11-3 record. The Cougars find themselves in third place in this year’s preseason poll, earning 36 points. Though Head Coach Tim Grove lost a trio of four-year starters from last year, Minnesota-Morris returns two first team all-conference players in forward Steph Roggenburk and guard Nikki Washek. Together, Roggenburk and Washek return nearly 30 points per game to the Cougars’ starting five. They will also receive meaningful veteran help from junior Diane Blommel. Keep an eye on first-year player Emily Mehr in 2009-10, as the all-time leading scorer at Aitkin High School was named the Brainerd Dispatch Player of the Year.
Coming in fourth in the poll was the College of St. Scholastica, who earned 30 points. The Saints return just about everyone from last year’s squad that went 6-8 in UMAC play. All-conference guard Kirsten Haukom is one of Head Coach Stacy Deadrick’s returners to watch, as Haukom led St. Scholastica in both scoring (11.0 points per game) and rebounding (5.7 rebounds per game) last season. Joining Haukom on the perimeter will be Katie Christensen (7.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists per game in 2008-09) and Erin Morstad (3.6 points per game), who had a team-high 80 assists in last year’s freshman campaign. Laura Amys will lead the Saints under the hoop, where she blocked 43 shots as a freshman last season.
After finishing 7-7 in UMAC competition last year, Martin Luther College was predicted to finish fifth in the conference with 24 points. The Babinec sisters, who teamed up for several Knights wins last year, will hit the court as the Babinec sister in 2009-10, as now-sophomore Erica returns after a season that produced 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, earning her first team all-conference accolades. Babinec was also third in the UMAC last year in steals, averaging 2.9 per contest. Representing Martin Luther in the front court will be Emily Boldt, who finished fourth in the league with 1.4 blocks per game despite averaging only 10 minutes per contest.
Martin Luther edged Bethany Lutheran College by just a point in the poll, as the Vikings picked up 23 points for sixth place in the poll. Bethany Lutheran, who also received a first place vote, returns a wealth of experience to the court in 2009-10 as seven players from a year ago return to the court, five of whom have starting experience. The Vikings will need that experience after graduating a pair of all-conference players in Eva Voss and Lindsey Kahle, both of whom were among the UMAC's Top 10 in scoring last season. Four-year starters Casey Gudahl and Molly Erdman will look to fill those roles, while guard Nicole Jones had a strong freshman season in 2008-09, averaging 6.5 points per game.
Presentation College and Crown College, who finished seventh and eighth in the preseason solicitation, are both under new leadership after 5-9 and 0-14 UMAC records last year. A former UMAC All-Conference player at Minnesota-Morris, Alaina Benson takes over at Presentation this season. Coach Benson returns four of the Saints' starters from last year's team including Chelsey Stanley, Meghan Schmidt, Becky Smith and Sara Gregersen. Gregersen led Presentation in scoring with 16.7 points per game last season while Smith contributed 11.5 points per game in 2008-09.
For Crown, Bill Adamson assumes the Storm coaching duties this season after leaving his head men’s basketball coaching position at Itasca State Community College. Adamson’s job won’t be easy, as the head coach assumed his new position late in the year and is without last season’s leading scorer in Mary Devries. Joy Murray (9.0 points and 3.6 rebounds per game in 2008-09) and Stephanie Zroka (8.5 points, 5.2 rebounds per game) are two of four returners from last year’s squad.
All eight UMAC teams, which have been practicing since the week of Oct. 15, will begin playing nonconference games the week of Nov. 15. The first weekend of UMAC play comes on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 4-5.
Stay tuned for the UMAC Men's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll results, which will be distributed on Friday, Nov. 13.